The four pot calipers were originally mated with master cylinders having a larger bore than ABS Strom master cylinders. Some people find the stroke too light and the travel too long, claiming it feels mushy. Others love the ease of two fingered braking. It's a personal preference.

The four pot calipers were originally mated with master cylinders having a larger bore than ABS Strom master cylinders. Some people find the stroke too light and the travel too long, claiming it feels mushy. Others love the ease of two fingered braking. It's a personal preference.

Hence i recommend you change the brake M/C to the larger bore ones if using 4 pots - all V and pre K7 Wee version will work fine. In fact, i would recommend doing that even if u stick with stock calipers -

no problem with ABS there either on larger M/C - in fact i feel it's better as the kickback on ABS activation is less. Just beware that the less brake lever distance travel (hence the feeling of firmer brake) is a trade off requiring small but noticeable hand pressure.

I opt for stock calipers with better pads AND larger brake M/C because it achieves my objective without upsetting ABS. I can easily 2 finger brake with this setup - but my finger maybe stronger so YMMV - it also allow me to have better modulation in low traction surface than a powerful 4 pot brake (if u intend to do a fair bit of unpaved work)

I guess what I'm looking for is someone to tell me that if I do this my ABS will still work correctly...

Sorry to be so needy....

darkjedip:

To answer you question - yes the ABS still works.

However my measurement tells me that the ABS will take a fraction longer to unlock the wheels than stock setup. I can remember the average additional stopping distance with ABS activation as i did this 2/3 years ago - it was not a lot but certainly measurable and repeatable at speed up to 80km/hr.

- the theory is that the ABS is "calibrated" to release X amount of fluid per "lockup detection" based on stock caliper setup - larger piston area (ie 4 pot) require larger release so an additional time was required to release more fluid

Of course the above is a hypothesis as exactly how Bosch ABS system work is a closely guarded secret. Note Bosch engineer tells our german friend Castle Tek that the mod is a "problem"

I am sorry to be the black sheep, but i am only telling you my measurement and my experience. Most people wont notice the difference

If you are keen to do the mod but are worried then i suggest you do it in steps.

1) clean and lightly sand the disc and change all fluids and put a lightly sanded EBC HH pads to ensure you are getting the best efficiency out of the stock;

2) change to larger brake M/C - you will want to do this if you change to 4 pots anyway. If you this point you are happy with the change go no further - do some brake distance measurement deliberately jamming the brake to let ABS do all the work

3) change to 4 pots compare the braking distance relying purely on ABS, factor in the additional brake feel and make a decision - with so many people doing this mod, i doubt you will lose much if you change back to (2) and sell the items

So I received the brackets and went about attaching the 4 pots. Here are some pics.

I'm a bit different in that i'm using the Nissin Calipers from a 2005 Honda F4i. So with these calipers, I now have a completely Nissin system!

The install differs from the Tokico calipers: On the right side, I had to move the rubber sleeve that is glued to the brake line up to keep it in the bracket. I pulled it off the line and then used some RTV silicone adhesive to glue it back together.

On the left side, the line was a bit long so I adjusted the angle of the banjo accordingly.

So I bled and bled and bled and bled until my arms were burning. Once I got an acceptably firm lever, I did some laps of my block and gave it a go. Overall, i'm disappointed. Either the Stock master is unable to move enough fluid, or I have some air left in the lines, but I actually found the braking force to be equal or lesser than the stock setup. Given the discussion about the stock m/c's reduced size and the Nissin calipers' larger piston (even larger than the tokico) i'm not surprised. The good news is that I do have the F4i master, which looks to be a direct swap.

And here the new M/C; as I mentioned before, funny how the stock setup uses a Nissin M/C with Tokico calipers. The F4i's stock M/C should work better with the calipers and should swap straight in. Note that I was originally going to use the F4i M/C, but thought the lack of a mirror mount was going to be an issue. Then I noticed that the mount is part of the bracket and can be swapped over to the new M/C, as well as the pivot bolt for the handguards. More when I do this tomorrow.

aside from the usual area of bubble getting trapped, i find the long ABS plumbing produces additional challenge between "distribution block" and ABS Hydraulic Unit to underneath the seat - air potentially get trapped there.

jack the front of bike up (under your bash plate), so that hopefully bubbles deep in the ABS HU pipes will "rise" up to the "brake distribution block" under the lower triple. leave it like that for overnight.

Bleed the brakes the next day from further-est from the brake MC - ie, caliper , then banjo bolts at around the "brake distribution block" and lastly the banjo bolts next to the brake MC.

Lastly activate the ABS a few times to ensure all air is out and strap the brake lever overnight.

when swapping brake M/C, i suggest the following to reduce additional air being introduce (but the procedure is going to be a bit messy).

Put lots of rags around where the MC meets the brake line which goes from top to "brake distributor" - do not tighten the banjo bolt at this point- squeeze the lever - brake fluid and air bubble would escape near the bolt. when most of air bubble is gone tighten as you squeeze the lever. bleed the system by loosening and tighten the bolt as you squeeze the lever a few times to bleed.

helps if you have bought the banjo bleeder bolt from Blair @SV Racing.

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